Some parking ticket revenue mismanaged, reports Oakland city auditor

The Oakland parking ticket management division has some money problems – at least that’s the finding of an audit released Wednesday by City Auditor Courtney Ruby.

In a year-long investigation, Ruby found several areas with money discrepancies. Many of those issues centered around unaccounted for money and possible revenue loss.

The audit looked at the management of parking tickets for fiscal year 2010-11. The city’s parking ticket division, Ruby said in the report, is holding on to more than $316,000 in overpaid parking tickets from residents and businesses for this period.

Ruby said that the division potentially lost $27,000 due to improperly recorded tickets.

The report also found that the city’s previous financial collection system, ACS, often missed key revenue targets. Ruby said the city may have lost thousands of dollars because of their actions or missed benchmarks.

“Had ACS met its promised collection targets, the city would have received an additional $401,000 to $620,500 in parking revenue; instead ACS paid $10,128 in penalties for missing targets,” the report says.

But city officials said the audit is off the mark.

“We generally agree with the audit report findings, but you’ve got to keep it in context,” Assistant city administrator Scott Johnson said. “Most of the findings and the issues raised have been resolved or are in the process of being resolved.”

Johnson said it is also important to remember the timing of the audit.